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Christopher Nolan's 'Interstellar' Adds Casey Affleck to Cast

David Lowery's indie drama Ain't Them Bodies Saintsstars Casey Affleck as a man who takes the fall for a crime committed by his wife and escapes from prison years later in order to return to his family. It made a lot of waves with critics when it screened at Sundance earlier this year, and it looks like it will be one of the more hard-hitting dramas of 2013.

When questioned about his future endeavours in a recent interview, Affleck replied, "I'm going to work on a Chris Nolan movie in the fall."

Since Nolan will begin preparation for principal photography on his new science fiction film Interstellar this summer, filming will likely get underway properly in the fall, so there's no doubt that Affleck is referring to Interstellar in the interview with Elle.

So far, the cast of Interstellar has mainly been built out of actors who don't frequent the science-fiction genre. The film will be led by Matthew McConaughey, a romance drama veteran whose most recent feature starring role was as a male stripper in Magic Mike, and who hasn't been near a sci-fi film since 1997's Contact. Female stars Jessica Chastain and Anne Hathaway are also best known for their roles in romances and dramas - though Hathaway of course starred in Nolan's The Dark Knight Rises. The cast member with the greatest genre clout so far is Nolan favorite Michael Caine, who played Alfred in all three of the director's Batman films, had a key role in Inception, and starred in Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men.

Interstellar is reportedly based on the theories of theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, who helped to popularize the use of wormhole theory in modern science fiction. It will be interesting to see whether Thorne ends up being involved in the film (in a consulting capacity); the project has been described as an odyssey "to the farthest borders of our scientific understanding." He has expressed enthusiasm in the past for experiments on the possibilities of wormhole theory, especially in science-fiction, where authors can explore the potential adventures of future civilizations who have access to technology we haven't discovered yet. In one interview, Thorne outlined the importance of thought experiments in the establishment of modern theoretical physics:

"Thought experiments, Einstein taught us, are a powerful tool for probing the nature of physics - the nature of fundamental law - and he used thought experiments in formulating the laws of relativity. They were his crucial tool. In a similar way, I believe thought experiments about wormholes and about time travel are powerful ways to come to grips with the nature of space and time."

The script for Interstellar was originally written by Jonah Nolan, who created CBS show Person of Interest and also performed writing duties for a number of his brother's projects, including Memento, The Prestige and The Dark Knight. Christopher Nolan has adapted Jonah's script to include his own original idea - though it's still unclear what that idea was.

Due to the customary secrecy that's surrounding Interstellar, it's not yet known who Affleck will be playing, or indeed any of the specifics regarding what the explorers' wormhole mission is. Due to information leaks and promotional teases, however, it becomes a lot harder to keep the nature of a project completely under wraps after filming begins, so expect more details about Interstellar to become available once principal photography has begun.